Sophie the Messy Artist

For a kid who’s always asking, “Do I have anything on my face?” Sophie has no compunction about getting messy. In contrast to me at her age, when I couldn’t bear to wear anything with dirt on it or to get dirty myself, Sophie doesn’t mind so much as long as her face isn’t blemished.

A few minutes ago, I went into the sunroom to see what she was up to, and I found her face down on the couch. When I greeted her, she got up and I noticed a huge blue marker stain just underneath her left nostril. Kind of as if blue snot had come out of her nose. And then I looked down and saw her hands, which were covered in marker. It was all I could do not to scream in panic.

She was proud to let me take a photo of her in all of her “Avatar”-like glory. I was frankly a little scared that she’d be permanently tattooed in blue. But, praised be the marker gods, who were on our side this time ’round, because she was able to remove almost all of it without resorting to turpentine and other nefarious chemicals.